SHeavy muscles and action performances made him world famous. As “Terminator” (1984) he coined the legendary phrase “I’ll be back” (I’ll be back). The promise has Arnold Schwarzenegger complied with.
Today, the native Austrian is not only fully involved as a Hollywood star, but also as an environmental activist and political advisor. This Saturday (July 30) is his 75th birthday, but a retirement break is out of the question.
One role alone is no longer enough for him
Schwarzenegger is in the middle of production on the Netflix spy series “Fubar” as the lead actor and executive producer. For the first time in his long acting career, the action star appears in a series leading role. Of course he can flex his muscles again. The veteran star and Monica Barbaro (32, «Top Gun: Maverick») play father and daughter who find out that they are both secretly working as CIA agents.
But just one role hasn’t been enough for Arnie for a long time. The ex-bodybuilder, formerly «Mr. Olympia”, “Mr. Universe” and Governor of California (2003 to 2011) made the fight against climate change his mission.
In mid-June, for example, he switched to the Austrian World Summit, an annual event, via video from the filming location in Toronto, Canada climate conference in Vienna, co-organized by his Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative platform. With strong words, the action star warned against turning away from fossil fuels. With its billions in payments to Russia for fuel imports, Europe would help finance Moscow’s war of aggression in Ukraine. “We have blood on our hands,” Schwarzenegger ranted. The West has technologies to replace fossil fuels. It is now our “moral obligation” to use this.
In a moving video speech in March, Schwarzenegger addressed the Russian people to stand up to Moscow’s propaganda. The government lied to the population and the soldiers about the real reasons for the war in Ukraine. “The authorities in the Kremlin started this war. This is not the war of the Russian people,” Schwarzenegger said.
A good year earlier, after the storming of the Capitol in Washington in January 2021, the Californian by choice had appealed in a speech “to my fellow Americans and friends around the world” to overcome the division in the country. Former US President Donald Trump tried a coup “by misleading people with lies,” said Schwarzenegger. “President Trump is a failed leader. He will go down in history as the worst president ever.” Schwarzenegger, traditionally a Republican, distanced himself from his party colleague Trump early on – and expressed his support for Democrat Joe Biden.
As a bodybuilder he made a career in the USA
Schwarzenegger does not come to rest at retirement age. With his many concerns he jets through the world, of course also to events in his former home. In Kitzbühel, he likes to celebrate at the annual white sausage party before the Hahnenkamm races at the Ski World Cup. At the Munich Oktoberfest he has often been a guest in lederhosen.
Schwarzenegger has had a storybook career. The policeman’s son was born in Thal in Styria in 1947 and grew up in poor conditions. The first coronation – to “Mister Universe” – came at 20. As a bodybuilder he made a career in the USA, then as an actor – with an accent and an unpronounceable name. He made his debut in Hollywood in 1982 with “Conan the Barbarian”. Arnie was also able to prove himself with comedies like “Twins” and “Kindergarten Cop”.
He described all of this in his 2012 memoir “Total Recall: The True Story of My Life”. In it, he also wrote about his glamor marriage to liberal Kennedy niece Maria Shriver. They have four children together. In Chapter 29, “The Secret,” he opened up about his affair with the family’s longtime housekeeper. The relationship and the consequences, a now 24-year-old son, he had kept from his wife at the time, Shriver filed for divorce. “I totally screwed it up,” Schwarzenegger sums up the marriage.
Schwarzenegger is now a grandfather of two. Daughter Katherine (32), who is married to actor Chris Pratt, gave birth to their second daughter in May.
He can no longer do squats
The muscle man was last seen in the cinema in 2019 in «Terminator: Dark Fate» as an aged fighting machine that has still not forgotten how to fight. In real life, however, the action star has to make a few concessions to age. “I can’t do squats and all those kinds of heavy leg exercises anymore,” he told Men’s Health in 2018. «My knees are shot. I have to protect my knees because I want to ski.” He also loves cycling, all over the world.
He had his first heart operation in 1997 when he had an aortic valve put in. The doctors wanted to correct a congenital heart defect. Further heart operations followed in 2018 and 2020. Schwarzenegger has had several motorcycle accidents. In 2006 he broke his femur while skiing, and he already has a new hip.
According to his own statements, eating less meat has given him more life. “My cardiologist told me that since I’ve been eating more vegetables and plant products my arteries have stopped narrowing,” Schwarzenegger said in an October interview with the BBC. “I’ve improved my health, which gave me two extra years.”